Democrats' Senate push starts New Hampshire ads

WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Democrats' campaign arm on Thursday began running its first ads to help Sen. Jeanne Shaheen's unexpectedly rocky re-election bid in New Hampshire.

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee's multimillion-dollar ad push, which will run through Election Day, criticizes likely Republican nominee Scott Brown for votes he cast while serving as senator from neighboring Massachusetts. The ad also makes a direct appeal to older voters, who have great sway in New Hampshire.

"New Hampshire is a good place to grow older. We can depend on each other," the ad's narrator says in the 30-second spot. "But Scott Brown would turn his back on New Hampshire seniors. While representing Massachusetts, Scott Brown supported cuts to Medicare and Social Security."

The narrator adds: "And he voted to protect tax breaks for millionaires and big oil."

Brown's campaign said it is Shaheen whom seniors should fear and pointed to her vote for Democrats' health care law, which has had a rocky rollout in New Hampshire.

"There's only one candidate in this race who has voted to cut Medicare, and that's Jeanne Shaheen when she cast the deciding vote for Obamacare," said Elizabeth Guyton, Brown's spokeswoman. "Clearly, Shaheen's liberal allies are becoming increasingly desperate as Brown's momentum continues to surge, and they are willing to do anything to prop up her faltering re-election prospects."

Shaheen, a first-term senator and popular former governor, has run ahead of Brown in polls through the summer, although one recent survey showed the race becoming more competitive as voters start to consider the candidates.

Brown is expected to easily win his Sept. 9 primary.

While Democrats' Senate campaign organization has not aired ads until now, their allies have been hammering Brown for months with $2.7 million in ads against him.

Republicans are looking at New Hampshire as a place to pick up one of the six seats they need to tilt the majority to the GOP.